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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Untitled, Mary and Me

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

Last weeks winner is Greer! Congratulations! You have won one of Heather's Snowflake pendants! Send Heather an email and she will get it right out to you.

Each month the Art Bead Scene hosts a monthly challenge for jewelry designers. As one of the sponsors for the December challenge, I thought it would be a nice end to the year if I could collaborate with another sponsor to make a special set of beads inspired by the December Challenge painting by Lee Krasner. In my last Studio Saturday, I talked about the collaboration in the making with Mary Harding.

Interestingly, Mary and I had personal stories to share about the painting and the artist. Mary had lived on Long Island near the Pollack Krasner home while Krasner was still alive. She shares her experience of first seeing the Pollock-Krasner home today on ABS:

"When I first stepped off the train on a warm day in June in East Hampton when I was in my twenties, I was sure I had found the most beautiful place in the world. That was back a bit before East Hampton had become the very, very hot spot that it is today. My first visit and many others always traveled it seemed in Pollack's footsteps because my husband to be had spent summers since childhood in Maidstone Park just a few miles further on from Springs Road where Pollack died and had lived. As a young artist, he had idolized Pollack. I was shown his home, I was treated to the vast expanse of lush marshland and glimpses of bright blue water that surrounded it. I remember the dense scrub oak woods and the feeling of fresh salty air, and a sense of freedom and adventure that such a legacy seemed to imbue to us as young and wanna be artists. It was indeed magnificent scenery and would be inspiration forsure.

Lee Krasner was hardly spoken of except that she was his widow and still lived in their home. She was to wait quite some time before she received her duly earned recognition."

When considering which paintings to use in the ABS Challenges, I purposefully set about looking for female painters. Often overlooked during their lifetime and well after, there is a rich body of work to choose from.

I love the graphic nature of Krasner's Untitled and I was fortunate enough to actually see it at the Albright Knox in my hometown.

The painting is rather small but is full of texture and life. I wish the ABS readers could have seen it, you wanted to reach out and touch it. You can't see the texture of a painting from a picture of it and it's a shame because texture is what gives the painting vibrancy and life. Untitled has it and I stood in front of it for a long time taking it in.

Mary and I talked about our experience with the artist and worked to capture that in the color palette we chose. In lieu of texture, we chose a vibrant green as an accent to make the rest of colors come alive.

We hope our beads inspire designers to see the passion in often overlooked paintings and make them come alive for you. Our collaboration has been exciting and fruitful. Mary and I will be writing more this coming week on our blogs. But now, for this week's question:

Is there a color, a painting, an artist or artform you think gets overlooked? Leave me a comment and you'll be entered to win one of the "Untitled" flameworked glass art beads I've made for this month's challenge!

I think that architecture is an artform that can be overlooked simply because we use the buildings, walk into and through them every day and don't focus on the beauty. There are some that aren't so beautiful, it is true. But that makes the beauty of the ones that are even greater. I especially love churches and old buildings, the kind with friezes and columns. And I agree that Gustav Klimt is one of my very favorites.Thanks for sharing!Enjoy the day!Erin

I have to say, this painting has inspired me. I love the rustic geometry and symmetry of the piece. While it would be nice to experience the texture in person, I think you do get a strong sense of the texture just from the design, in my opinion.

Georgia O'Keefe and her palette and living in the desert southwest always reassure me that I'm not crazy for loving my local environs. In addition to her soothing choice of colors, the movement in her forms lead to undulating meditation for me.

I really love the way the beads you made fit with the painting so well.The colors are just right.I don't know enough about art to be able to answer the question asked.That makes me cringe,but in my younger life I let the important and enriching aspects of life go unnoticed and only now have I begun to see what is really valuable and lasting.

Cindy, I am glad you try to feature woman who are under appreciated or just overlooked in the creative world.

So many female artists found themselves in their artist husband or lovers shadow in the past due to what was "expected" of a woman as wife and mother. This wasn't just true for painters but also for musicians, writers, (Sylvia Plath anyone?) and any career creative or otherwise that interfered with a womans percieved role in society.

Woman like Lee Krasner who tried to live her life the way she wanted though still in Pollack's shadow also benefitted by association. By being two artistic souls living together the usual roles were subverted.

If it weren't for woman like Lee Krasner, Sylvia Plath, and so many others of their time being brave enough to be who they wanted, nay needed to be, we would still be just fiddling around in a male dominated world. Oops! Sorry I got on my soapbox there. I did want to say that the beads you and Mary made are fab. Thanks for listening!Paula Lee

Color - I don't necessarily think one color but certain combination's do because of associations. Especially the complimentary's of red/green (Christmas) and Purple/Yellow (Easter). I would like to see these used in a totally different way that would not suggest the holiday associated with it, would not trigger the mind to 'go there'.

Artist, I think maybe because of his later work most disregard the full (huge)body of works that Salvadore Dali created, with such a range there is a painting for everyone. Most think of his surrealist period but I love his earlier painting, most some have never seen. I have been to the US Dali Museum and it was the most moving of all museums I've been to.

I love the work of Tina Modotti. She had a short career as a photographer in Mexico and produced beautiful striking images of indigenous women and their way of life. Unfortunately her work has also been overshadowed by her romantic relationships, specifically her affair with photographer Edward Weston.

And I love the work of Lee Krasner, too! Oh, and the beads are stunning!

There are a large number of extremely talented female quilting artists all with different techniques ( Libby Lehman,Paula Nadelstern, Ruth McDowell). I also agree with the architecture comment. I am always taking pictures for inspiration of the many wonderful styles of architecture here in Richmond, VA. Your bead selection is wonderful!

For instance, Arthur Dove. He's one of the pioneers of American Abstraction, yet few people know of him today. On a global scale, his abstract work pre-dates even Kandinsky.

Although she's gotten recent press, Lee Bontecou had a HUGE impact in the 70's until she decided to recede from the limelight to focus on her work and avoid labeling herself as a feminist artist.

Ana Mendieta, whose life was cut short from falling/being pushed out a window, rediscovered feminism, cultural identity, performance and installation art before it was in vogue.

Max Beckmann was as big and influential as Picasso or Matisse or Van Gogh, but as a German received a bad reputation. His Expressionist paintings are imbued with struggle, hunger, and war.

Jess was a San Francisco-based master collage artist who was also a hermit. His works in combination with the whole Beat Movement really sparked a new interest in mythology, the psycho-spiritual in art, and a more intellectual approach towards art making and symbology.

The Still Lifes of Frida Kahlo. Everyone knows the self-portraits, but rarely do her luscious, sensuous and ultimately revealing still lifes show up.

There are so many artists who make the most incredible work, who all deserve a little bit of attention for their creativity and the beauty they've brought into the world.